PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NFL : Officials Blew Call, Rules Chief Says

Jim Finks, chairman of the NFL’s competition committee said that game officials made the wrong call on an “illegal demonstration” penalty that helped the New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.

The rule was invoked after the Steelers scored to make the score 20-20. The Giants won, 23-20.

“What I saw was not the intent of our rules,” said Finks, who also is president of the New Orleans Saints. “The demonstration was spontaneous. It wasn’t long. It wasn’t rehearsed.”

Why the call?

“It’s a judgment call, up to the officials,” Finks said. “But my impression is that they don’t like the rule, so they’re going out of their way to call it to show that.”

The call occurred after Eric Green caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Neil O’Donnell with 50 seconds to play. Green spiked the ball and was joined by teammates Louis Lipps and Dwight Stone in a celebration. Referee Red Cashion penalized Pittsburgh for an illegal demonstration, so Gary Anderson kicked off from the 30 instead of the 35. His kick went out of bounds, and the Giants began their final drive from their 40. Forty-six seconds later, Matt Bahr kicked a 44-yard field goal to give the Giants the victory.

Craig (Ironhead) Heyward, fullback for the Saints, cursed two women who sought his autograph at a suburban New Orleans bar Friday night, forcefully grabbed one of them, head-butted the other and menaced both with a steel police barricade, according to a police report that was unavailable until Tuesday.

Police gave this account:

Gina C. Taylor and Katie P. Lala approached Heyward in the bar’s parking lot and asked him to autograph a T-shirt that Taylor had brought with her to a pep rally/fund-raiser. Heyward, who was intoxicated, stepped out of the car, cursed Taylor and grabbed her. An unidentified Saint player escorted Taylor away and attempted to apologize for Heyward’s behavior. But Heyward approached the women again, shouted curses at them, picked up a steel barricade from the parking lot and held it over his head. Heyward shouted, “Do you want this on your head?”

Several other Saint players forced Heyward to put the barricade down, after which Heyward butted Lala in the head and drove off. Lala’s head was bruised.

Heyward, who was issued a summons for misdemeanor assault, denied the allegations.

The Seattle Seahawks waived quarterback Jeff Kemp, who threw an interception in overtime Sunday that led to a 23-20 loss to the Raiders. The move makes room for the return of starting quarterback Dave Krieg from injured reserve.